


Get me out of this cavern or I'll cave in

by FuryBeam136



Series: i ain't the first with the curse [4]
Category: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game)
Genre: Angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-23
Updated: 2019-08-23
Packaged: 2020-09-24 10:24:26
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 845
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20356924
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FuryBeam136/pseuds/FuryBeam136
Summary: He takes another step. Another. And then the door shuts behind him and Connor freezes as he hears a definitive click.He’s locked inside.





	Get me out of this cavern or I'll cave in

Connor is… anxious. His first mission without Hank. His first mission alone. He’s supposed to prove he can work without Hank supporting him. And he can, he would just find it much more preferable if Hank were there.

He’s not completely alone, of course. He’s connected to a network of people digitally and can call reinforcements if the investigation goes south. Which it won’t. Because Connor is capable of dealing with this on his own. He has to. This isn’t just about him. This is bigger than him, bigger than the DPD. This is him proving androids are trustworthy.

Connor forces himself to breathe deeply and evenly. He is calm. Even as he takes a step into the building and his processors flag thousands of tiny traces of recent human passing, he is calm. He doesn’t flinch at the assault of evidence his systems are trying to decipher.

He can handle this.

He takes another step. Another. And then the door shuts behind him and Connor freezes as he hears a definitive click.

He’s locked inside.

It’s fine. There have to be other exits. He’ll document the evidence and find his escape. He’s fine.

Connor’s LED flickers an unsteady yellow in the dim corridors of the office building. From a distance one might mistake it for a candle, and he holds onto that thought, because it’s better than the others crowding to get into his head and get a grip on his mind. Not that it really helps. They’re still sleeping in through the cracks, and he can still feel them, almost tangible.

Connor takes a deep breath of air. He’s fine. His footsteps echo and they sound so close yet so far away. His mind is playing tricks on him, or maybe it isn’t. He can’t tell if he’s been in this corridor before.

_“Get out,”_ something in his mind hisses urgently. He quiets it. He will get out. It’s fine. There’s a fire exit somewhere and Connor will escape through it.

Footsteps and whispers in the halls. They all feel so familiar and yet Connor can’t remember them. There’s a primal fear gripping his body and he doesn’t know why but he walks just a little bit faster down the next hallway.

Voices come from meeting rooms and yet every time Connor moves to follow them there’s no one there. His thirium pump races. His footsteps grow faster, more unsteady. His breathing grows shallow and quick.

The voice in the back of his mind is screaming now. _“Get out.”_ It repeats the words like a mantra and it’s driving Connor insane, he can’t breathe, the walls are too close and the corridors keep looping and he’s been here before, there are people here he used to know, but this place is new to him and besides his coworkers and Jericho’s leaders he’s never known _anyone-_

Footsteps pounding through the corridors almost as fast as Connor’s pulse. It takes longer than he’d like to admit for Connor to realize they’re his own. He’s running circles in corridors he knows and yet doesn’t know, searching for a door he remembers that was never there to begin with.

Connor pounds his fists against the wall where he feels it should be and screams.

He’s not wherever his mind seems to think he is. And yet he can hear casual chatter and discussions of something in the edges of his world and he doesn’t understand. What is happening here? He can’t breathe.

_“Get out,”_ the voice in the back of his mind screams.

“I can’t,” Connor sobs.

And then the world crumbles around him like the chains of coding that once held him back and Connor falls silent and still.

He can’t move. He can’t breathe. He can barely think. Everything is frozen and yet everything moves.

He just knows he needs to get out of here. How long has he been trapped here? He can’t tell, his internal clock has malfunctioned and his systems are struggling to fix themselves.

Something is wrong with him. But maybe not. It’s hard for him to think in a way that makes sense. He thinks he sends out a distress signal but it’s hard to say. He can barely tell what he’s doing. His body is moving, slowly, unsteadily, without any conscious feeling of doing so. Connor feels trapped in this hallway of half-memories and illusions.

It takes a lot more effort than it should to take a step. He needs to get out of these cramped hallways and offices. He needs to get out. There isn’t enough space and he’s being crushed by the air. There isn’t enough air. How is this place considered fit to be worked in? He can’t breathe.

He isn’t sure how long it’s been when backup finds him. Maybe it’s been seconds. Maybe it’s been hours. Everything is unclear and Connor just feels exhausted. He collapses into the grass outside when he’s finally there, and he breathes.

And after a long moment of confusion and fuzziness, Connor understands all of it with perfect clarity.


End file.
